The Ascent was one of the highlights of Microsoft’s recent next-gen showcase. The demo showed impressive visuals and particle effects, and the gameplay of Neon Giant’s top-down shooter RPG also appears to be deep and thoughtful. In an IGN preview, the developer revealed that despite its twin-stick shooter appearance, The Ascent allows players to determine the angle of their shot. The example given was shooting above weakened enemies to whittle down a bigger, more dangerous target behind them. The same can also be done from behind cover.
The Ascent’s world is entirely hand-crafted, and the developer says - at least on Xbox Series X - there won’t be any loading screens. The demo IGN saw was running on a PC with specs intended to match those of an Xbox Series X. The Ascent, however, is also coming to Xbox One, so some compromises will likely need to be made to get it stable on that console. Xbox Series X owners will enjoy gameplay at 4K and 60fps, though. The Ascent supports up to four players in co-op, and you can watch 12 minutes of gameplay to see the game’s dense environments and chunky gunplay. It’s aiming for release this year.
